El Salvador Perspectives

Ten years ago  doctors in El Salvador sought court permission for a young woman named Beatriz to have a therapeutic abortion, one to preserve her life and health.  Doctors believed Beatriz life was in danger if she carried her non-viable fetus to term, but Salvadoran courts up to the Supreme Judicial Court, declined to vary from the absolute ban on abortion in Salvadoran law.  El Salvador has one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the world. El Salvador outlaws abortion for any reason. There are no exceptions for rape, incest, or to protect the life of the mother. Moreover, El Salvador arrests and imprisons women who have abortions, sometime charging them with murder and sending them to prison for thirty years. Noor Mahtani, writing in El Pais , describes Beatriz' case: Beatriz was just 21 years old, with a nine-month-old son and many financial difficulties, when she was diagnosed with lupus. A year later, in March 2013, she found out she was pregnant for the ...

As abortion and reproductive rights issues roil the legal landscape in the US, El Salvador is a county where abortion rights are nonexistent.  El Salvador outlaws abortion in all situations and punishes not just abortion providers, but pregnant women, with some of the most draconian penalties in the world. As Human Rigts Watch reported: Abortion is a crime in El Salvador, with no exceptions – even in cases of rape or incest, where the pregnancy endangers the pregnant woman’s life or health, or in cases of severe fetal impairment. Anyone who has an abortion, and the medical providers who perform or induce them, can face drastic prison sentences. Women have been convicted of murder after being accused of having had an abortion, sometimes with prison terms for up to 40 years. For some of these women, having a miscarriage or stillbirth was used as evidence to convict them.  A too common scenario involves a mother who suffers a late term miscarriage.  At the hospital, rathe...

 With the celebration of the International Day of the Woman on March 8, this is a good time to review the status of women's rights in El Salvador.   An increasingly vocal women's movement is highlighting the violence and inequality women continue to face in the male-dominated culture of the country. On Sunday, March 7, streets in the center of San Salvador were filled with hundreds of women marching to demand recognition of their rights.    Concerns expressed by the marchers included violence against women, El Salvador’s absolute ban on abortion, lack of equal pay, lack of political representation and more. There is a photogallery filled with other images of the march here . The women's march ended up in the historic center of San Salvador at Plaza Gerardo Barrios bordered by the National Palace and Metropolitan Cathedral.    Certain members of the crowd spray-painted graffiti messages on concrete barriers outside the National Palace and on the base ...

Today in El Salvador on International Women's Day, various protest marches challenged the violence and inequality which subjugate women and girls.  Some of my posts from the last year involving the rights of women and girls illustrate the many areas where change is needed:   A tragedy and finally acquittal The trap of teen pregnancy in El Salvador Femicide suicide Child and teen pregnancy in El Salvador Ongoing epidemic of gender based violence Judges and Child Sexual Abuse The names of femicide victims were called out this morning in central San Salvador: #DiaDeLaMujer #ElSalvador En memoria de todas las mujeres y niñas víctimas de feminicidios pic.twitter.com/tXiW3WrPet — Revista La Brújula (@labrujula_rev) March 8, 2020 One emblematic case from the past year involved the killing of Karla Turcios, a Salvadoran journalist, murdered by her boyfriend.   He was  convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison.   The important poi...

At Remezcla this week, Christina Noriega writes  Herstory: Ten Salvadoran Women Who Changed the Course of History .  From the introduction to her piece: [H]istory shows that Salvadoran women have faced their dark circumstances to light beacons of hope. In this installment of our Herstory series, we look at the women who survived war, colonial rule, dictatorships and other bleak episodes in Salvadoran history to create change. They led guerrilla groups, defied abortion laws, laughed in the face of the patriarchal restrictions of their times and championed the rights of women. Often erased from history, these women are today heroines. Go to the article at Remzcla to read short summaries of the contributions of: María Feliciana de los Ángeles Miranda Antonia Navarro Huezo Prudencia Ayala Julia Mojica Matilde Elena López Mélida Anaya Montes Marianella García Villas María Ofelia Navarrete María Teresa Tula Rufina Amaya

The dismissal of a case of child sexual abuse committed by a sitting judge in El Salvador has rocked the country.   It appears that just about every sector of society is outraged at the appearance that judges in El Salvador are protecting their own, and not protecting the most innocent of victims.  The case involves Salvadoran magistrate Eduardo Jaime Escalante Díaz, 50 years old, who was accused of sexual assault of a child.   Specifically the allegation is that he enticed a 10 year old girl on the street to approach him and then touched her genital area before fleeing after a neighbor shouted at him. The Legislative Assembly revoked Escalante's judicial immunity from suit so that he could face justice in a criminal court.   Last week, that court ruled that a criminal case against Escalante could not proceed.  The court ruled  that the proof provided by the prosecutors was insufficient to establish the crime they had charged against ...

Embed from Getty Images The case of Evelyn Beatriz Hernández Cruz, is a tragedy.   As a teenager, she was condemned to prison in 2017 for thirty years for aggravated homicide after losing her baby when she was 8 months pregnant.  The pregnancy had been the result of repeated rapes of the teenager.   After the baby was stillborn Evelyn was arrested by authorities for a suspected abortion, a crime in El Salvador prosecuted as murder. Her lawyers successfully got her 2017 conviction overturned on appeal for lack of evidence, but the prosecutors in El Salvador decided to try her again.   Yesterday, Evelyn's second trial ended in an acquittal . The case has been highlighted by women's rights groups campaigning against the unjust treatment of women in Evelyn's situation.   Evelyn's case is emblematic of too many cases where a miscarriage results in criminal prosecution for homicide.  Advocates celebrated yesterday's acquittal as de...

A prime cause for women to face lives in poverty was highlighted by Al Jazeera in an article titled  The 'vicious cycle' driving teen pregnancy in El Salvador .   The article is a lengthy overview of how pregnancy at a young age, whether caused by lack of sexual education, lack of access to contraceptives, abuse or rape, traps young women in a cycle of poverty.   The scope of the problem: Adolescents comprise one in three pregnancies in El Salvador. For girls who do become pregnant, dropping out of school is one of their only options.  "In many cases, school principals say, 'We don't want them here. It will motivate other children to become pregnant,'" said Erika Guevara, a Ciudad Mujer Programmes Coordinator.  According to the United Nations, 60 percent of young girls in El Salvador who become pregnant between the ages of 10 and 17 had already dropped out of school before becoming pregnant. Of those who were in school when they got pregnant, th...

"Femicide suicide" is a crime specially recognized only in the laws of El Salvador.   It means a suicide by a woman escaping violence directed at her.  It is a horrible result of the gender violence which is endemic in El Salvador. The full dimensions of this crisis are driven home powerfully in a multi-media reporting project titled simply In El Salvador, Violence is Driving Girls to Kill Themselves . The report was produced by Univision News in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting with production and reporting by Almudena Toral, Patricia Clarembaux and Julia Gavarrete. Please go to the site and learn.   This is powerful journalism about a serious crisis. 

Last week El Salvador's Ministry of Health released a report on pregnancy in girls and teens in El Salvador.   It is a report that shows some progress on this serious issue, but there is still much to be accomplished.  The report titled  More than 19,000 reasons for the protection of girls and adolescents  is available  here . The report focuses on pregnancies during 2017 across El Salvador and compares them to a similar analysis performed in 2015.   The basic data is shown in this table:   As circled in the table, 781 girls 14 and under became pregnant in 2017, including 46 between the ages of 10 and 12.    This number is down from 1,437 in 2015, but is still much too high according to the Ministry of Health and any other compassionate observer. As the report notes, any pregnancy of a girl that young is rape.   But the Salvadoran criminal justice system is inadequate when it comes to crimes of sexual violence....

A group of women working as street vendors in greater San Salvador have transformed their lives into a theater company performing dramatic works which tell their own life stories. The group named La Cachada  recently performed at SXSW in Austin, Texas as part of the premiere of a movie about their theatre company: AUSTIN — Ruth, Wendy, Magda, Chileno and Magaly are five Salvadoran women who started their own theatre company and aspired for a better life in a male-dominated culture. Together, the former street vendors turned actresses created La Cachada Teatro , a theatre group that provides social commentary on how El Salvador treats its women while providing a creative outlet. The single mothers tell stories of their struggles and victories by performing them on stage.  Their story was so compelling it caught the eye of film director Marlén Viñayo. She watched how the women changed the way they dressed, the way they spoke and their outlook on life. Viñayo captured the ...

Violence directed at women and girls in El Salvador is an ongoing epidemic.  The levels of gender-based violence are rooted in structures and attitudes and the simple fact that men can get away with it. The Guardian reported today on alarming statistics of sexual violence in the country: Rates of sexual violence in El Salvador rose by a third last year, with the majority of cases involving teenage girls.  More than 60% of the 4,304 cases of sexual violence recorded in 2018 involved 12- to 17-year-olds, according to a report published this week by the Organisation of Salvadoran Women for Peace (Ormusa).  About 20% of the 560 cases of missing women last year were also among this age group.  In 2017, the number of sexual violence cases was 3,290. Overall the country has witnessed a 13% increase in number of instances of violence against women, from 5,781 in 2017 to 6,673 last year. And although femicides have declined (along with the general murder rate), the...

After being on a vacation for a few weeks, here are some short news pieces to catch you up on what is happening in El Salvador. International Women's Day was commemorated yesterday.   Many organizations issued statements or held activities.  A march to commemorate the day proceeded through San Salvador.   Leading up to International Women's Day there had been some good news as three more women, imprisoned after suffering miscarriages and then prosecuted for abortion/murder had their sentences commuted by El Salvador's Supreme Judicial Court.  Many groups pointed out how far El Salvador falls short on women's rights with high rates of femicide, abuse, discrimination and failure to value women's work. Bukele resolves Chicas defamation claim .   President-elect Nayib Bukele appeared in court with a stack of cash to settle the defamation claim of Eugenio Chicas.    Bukele paid $50,000 to resolve the matter , saying that he did not want...

A young woman in El Salvador sits in a prison cell after being repeatedly raped by her elderly step father and giving birth to his baby.   It is an emblematic case of El Salvador's war on poor women when it comes to reproductive health. Nina Lakahani writing in The Guardian  describes the case: In a case that highlights the rigidity of the country’s abortion laws, Imelda Cortez, 20, from an impoverished rural family in San Miguel, has been in custody since April 2017 after giving birth to a baby girl fathered by her abusive elderly stepfather.  Cortez was rushed to hospital after her mother discovered her in severe pain and bleeding heavily. The emergency room doctor suspected an abortion and called the police. Officers found the baby healthy and alive.  Cortez had been abused by her 70-year-old stepfather since she was 12 years old and said she had no idea she was pregnant. The baby survived, but Cortez was charged with attempted murder, denied bail and...

A proposed law was introduced in August  in El Salvador's National Assembly to provide programs in schools concerning responsible sexuality and self-worth in order to combat the problem of teen pregnancy in the county.  The draft law defined the programs' scope as dealing with biological, psychological, social, emotional and ethical issues of sexuality within a framework of human rights, prioritizing the elimination of the culture of violence.  El Salvador's legislators quickly tabled the proposed law    That was a mistake.  The problem of teen (and younger) pregnancy in El Salvador is a serious one .   According to the Ministry of Health, between 2013 and 2017, more than 900 girls between the ages of 10 and 17 gave birth each month -- 30 per day.    Between 2013 and 2015, one out of every three pregnancies in El Salvador involved an adolescent mother. On average, 69 girls or adolescents became pregnant per day in 2015, or one pregn...

Women, bringing their children, are fleeing gender-based violence in El Salvador and seeking asylum in the United States.   Yet, in the case of a woman from El Salvador, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions is re-writing asylum law to eliminate the possibility of protection for these women. From the American Immigration Council : In the latest attack on asylum seekers, Attorney General Jeff Sessions single-handedly overturned years of immigration precedent to find that many victims of violence will not qualify for asylum. His strongly-worded opinion strikes an especially devastating blow to Central American asylum seekers , the vast majority of whom seek protection in the United States after fleeing gang violence, domestic violence, or both. Sessions certified to himself a 2016 decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) in Matter of A-B- , a case involving a woman from El Salvador who was granted asylum based on severe domestic violence she experienced. In his decis...

The InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights issued a report today on its working visit to El Salvador in November 2017.   The IACHR's report has a particular focus on the human rights of women and girls.   The press release announcing the report summarizes its findings: The IACHR observes that the State of El Salvador has made some progress in the areas of citizen security and the rights of women and other groups at special risk, such as the “Safe El Salvador Plan” or the Ciudad Mujer (“Women’s City”) program. At the same time, the IACHR expresses its deep concern about violations of human rights stemming from citizen insecurity, the lack of universal access to basic services, and the lack of budgetary resources to ensure the proper functioning and development of human rights policies. With regard to the rights of women and girls, the IACHR notes the prevalence of violence and discrimination against them, which is clearly reflected in the total criminalization ...

The United Nations Population Fund is reminding us about the high and tragic costs of pregnancies among girls as young as 13 in El Salvador: Pregnancy can be a dangerous time, especially for girls whose bodies are not yet mature enough for childbearing. Globally, pregnancy-related complications are the leading cause of death among girls aged 15 to 19.  Yet early motherhood is common in El Salvador. Between 2013 and 2015, one out of every three pregnancies was to an adolescent mother, according information from the Ministry of Health....  Adolescent pregnancy is one of the biggest sexual and reproductive health challenges in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Factors contributing to the region’s high rates of teen pregnancy include widespread gender-based violence, lack of comprehensive sexuality education, and barriers to sexual and reproductive health services. In connection with its work, the UNPF has published a new document with the testimonies of 14 child ...

El Salvador's draconian abortion laws which admit of no exceptions, and the series of cases where women who miscarried were prosecuted for homicide, have been often discussed on this blog.   An opinion piece in the LA Times, titled The real reason El Salvador jails women for stillbirths? It's called 'moral panic, ' offers some perspective on this harsh treatment of traumatized women: According to [South African sociologist Stanley] Cohen’s theory, the media plays a crucial role in whipping up moral panic. In El Salvador, mainstream media outlets went into overdrive to foment the frenzy over abortion, calling on the state to do more to capture homicidal mothers and using the words “abortion” and “homicide” interchangeably. One newspaper article reported that “the number of newborns being thrown into latrines, trash receptacles, or vacant lots by their own mothers is alarming.” Often, such articles did not cite a single case to support their claims, yet offered provocat...

For the past week, the global media have reported the case of Evelyn Beatriz Hernández Cruz, a teenager condemned to jail for thirty years for aggravated homicide after losing her baby when she was 8 months pregnant.    Most of the English language reporting is written for headlines and misses some of the complexities of the story.    The BBC probably has the best summary in English: In April last year, Ms Hernandez gave birth in the latrine of her home in a small rural community. She lost consciousness after losing large amounts of blood.  When her mother took her to hospital, leaving the baby's remains behind, Ms Hernandez was detained on suspicion of procuring an abortion.  Eleven days later she had an initial court hearing and she has been in custody since. Her charge was changed to aggravated homicide when no evidence was found of her having had an abortion.  Although she was in the third trimester, Ms Hernandez said she had confused t...